After the Undead, the Reaper Calls
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Vamdemon was a virus who took most of Odaiba's populace along with him. Amongst the walking dead were only a few living, a few choices. And Odaiba was only the beginning – and the beginning of the end when amongst the living Chosen, a reaper appears to bury the dead.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, K a crossover where both fandom are entirely in canon, and for the Crossover Competition.

* * *

 **After the Undead, the Reaper Calls  
** _Chapter 1_

Within twelve hours, Odaiba had gone from a district of the living to a city of the dead, and now things moved on. News anchors spoke of the miraculous monsters that saved more than three thousand people from the vampire who lay a day-long siege on their costal town. Luckily, news of the children hadn't spread too far. They'd been specks in the vacuum of light when most of the people in the convention centre had emerged, the new dead amongst life, and only close family had recognised the eight forms vanishing into the sky.

And when the trolleycar comes through the morning sun of the following day, only those families are on the street, waiting.

And nobody noticed. Nobody realised. Except for him whose job it was to monitor the balance of the worlds. Because Tokyo had, even in this godforsaken world, been a city of the living. They cremate their dead. They moved on. They never realised souls stirred in their urns, aching for a proper burial. They never realised that, in other parts of the world where the dead are buried, not burned, the bodies rise up from the grave until a young woman with a special shovel buries them again.

Gravekeepers. That was the name given to them, amongst others: other cruel names by those who don't want to die, or don't want to lose their loved ones. That was in the parts of the world who knew of the walking dead, who knew they had died. Those who hid bullet wounds under vests or long cuts under sleeves or sicknesses under layers of cream. Or those who'd learnt to recognise the signs of the dead. In Tokyo, there were few who escaped and they were swept up with the living, indistinguishable. And Gravekeepers did not come. Not yet.

But they would, now that there were three thousand in Odaiba. And they were not Ortus, or the other famous dead cities in the west. Cities where the dead lived on, where the living were barred, where suspected Gravekeepers were attacked and killed the moment they approached the city. The Gravekeepers would come to bury them and that would be the end of Odaiba, save the few who'd survived.

Gennai did not disagree with that principle, per say. He was closer to Digimons in kind than human beings: a being made of data, to monitor and guide. As far as the humans went, his main interest were the Chosen, and it was through the Chosen's interest in the world that he held any interest in its people at all. After all, though the two worlds were inexplicably tied, the world would not crumble from the loss of three thousand people or even the landmass upon which they stood.

The hearts of the Chosen, on the other hand, could. Because Vamdemon had, perhaps unintentionally, sent most of their living families to a life as undead.

Few, by luck or some other power, escaped. Ishida Hiroaki who'd escaped the Bakemons' watchful eyes inside the TV station. Kido Shin whose hiding place in his home had somehow gone undiscovered. Kido Shuu who'd been out of Tokyo at the time. Takaishi Natsuko, who lived across Tokyo bay and who'd never made it through the fog. Takenouchi Haruhiko, lecturing at some summer classes in anthology at Kyoto University. The Izumis, by virtue of Koushiro's digital barrier. And a few others not directly related to the Chosen fortunate enough to be spared the Bakemon and their sequelae.

And as for those who _had_ been herded to the Convention Centre, there were only two survivors.

One he understood. Tachikawa Mimi. One of the Chosen children. Her crest and digivice came from the Digital World like Vamdemon did. It had provided some protection. And she'd been quick to escape the poison that the other children breathed.

But as for the other, he couldn't be sure. Eight year old Motomiya Daisuke. He could only guess that the boy had a digivice waiting for him, somewhere in two worlds. He was not omnipresent, only alone. Something would, in time, have to be done about that. His lack of knowledge had led to this end.

To think the eighth child had been in the home of one of the original seven all along. If they'd had the name they could have gone in and come back out of that world within a couple of hours. Vamdemon could have been defeated days sooner. Over three thousand lives could have been spared, left to die in smaller clumps as humans did, and be replaced by the newly born.

But five years ago, in human times, that had changed. The west called it the day God forsook the world and stole away the cycle of life and death with a final parting gift…or curse: the Gravekeepers. If that was true it was only the humans' world that felt the stain. Digimon died. Digimon were reborn, reincarnated – or perhaps that was an equally closed cycle his world bore. There was no such thing as a Digimon corpse. It was easier for him, from the Digital World, to know which humans were dead by human terms. Death for a Digimon was when they returned to the digi-egg state. Death for a human was when their heart stopped.

And the Chosen. Hope, light, love… Those things could easily die with death. After all, that was what they fought for. Their families. Their friends. Their loved ones. Because the world was too big a thing for eight children.

Three thousand people was not a lot in the context of the Human World, but it was to those eight children. And to the dead themselves, thinking they were still alive, going on with their daily lives as a Gravekeeper approached from the west.

Because a Gravekeeper could sense the three thousand dead that had suddenly appeared, overnight, even from across the ocean. And while the world shifted from relief to curiosity, Gennai waited with baited breath. Curiosity was a slow killer. The shovel was the first thing he had to face.

He met her at the foot of the broken Rainbow Bridge almost a week after the children returned. She looked at him curiously. The Gravekeeper – she must be, Gennai thought. She had an ornate shovel across her back.

'You are dead,' she said without surprise. 'But not human. Not of this world.'

'Are you aware of other worlds?' Gennai asked. If she was, his plea would be more audible.

'I am aware,' the Gravekeeper replied. 'I do not, however, understand.'

Which was fair enough. Gennai sought to understood other worlds only far as they influenced his own, and he failed at even that.

'There is too much to understand.' He sank down on the road, urging the Gravekeeper to do the same. He was still an old man after all: an old and weary man, even if not by human terms. 'The survival of this world and the one I come from rests on the shoulders of eight children. Maybe a few more as time goes on.'

'When the living have died and the dead are buried, there will no longer be a cause for Gravekeepers,' the Gravekeeper replied. 'We will cease to exist in a world that both calls for us and abhors us.' Her lips curled at the words, or the thoughts.

It was unusual, as for as Gennai knew, Gravekeepers had no capacity for emotion. But truthfully, five years did not give a lot to observe, and with the Dark Masters, it had been more imperative to focus on the Chosen and the condition of the Digital World than a strange phenomenon that seemed to affect only the Human World.

And yet, things weren't as clear cut as that. If it hadn't been for the Human World, the Digital World wouldn't even exist. If it hadn't been for the humans, digivolution would not be possible. If it hadn't been for the Chosen, their world wouldn't have been wrenched from the grip of the Dark Masters.

'There is no hope in a world without humans,' Gennai, after some deliberation said. 'Hope for a better world. Hope for a world where natural births occur again, where new species appear. Wishes are very powerful things.'

'Of course.' But she was thinking of other sorts of wishes. Wishes that lead to immortality. Wishes that led to their birth. 'The dead wish to keep on living. You wish the world to continue on, be saved.' The bitterness had lapsed from her voice, leaving a monotone again. 'My calling is to bury the dead.' Then, almost as an afterthought, she added: 'it will take a while to dig three thousand graves.'

Gennai breathed an inaudible sigh of relief at that. Time meant time to adjust, or time to find a way to reverse the damage Vamdemon had caused, or to do _something_ , anything. Or, in the worst case scenario, to defeat Vamdemon once and for all – Vamdemon they'd underestimated in lieu of the Dark Masters and who'd almost cost them the Chosen in their home world. 'If I could ask a favour then,' he said, considering his words carefully. 'There are certain humans who are very important to our world, and others very important to those children.'

'A hierarchy?' the Gravekeeper asked. 'Well, it doesn't make a difference to me what order I bury the dead in, so long as they are buried.'

'And other Gravekeepers?' That was the best he could hope for, by the looks of things. 'Will more come?'

'It is rare for two Gravekeepers to come upon the same horde of dead,' the Gravekeeper replied. She stood slowly, and unstrapped her shovel. 'This will by my task.'

'And…how long will it take?'

'Three to six years.' She shrugged. 'It depends on how much resistance I get.'

What was more important now, Gennai wondered. Researching the dead, stopping attempts to research the Digimon and the Digital World or finding Vamdemon.

He was, unfortunately, only one file of data, bound to one physical form.

'Is it really necessary?' He knew the answer, but still he had to ask. For a Gravekeeper, it was their very purpose of existing. Otherwise so many would not have gone to Ortus only to be cut down at its gates. 'You are not human. Does it matter whether they are alive or dead in a human sense?'

'It does,' the Gravekeeper replied. 'They have a certain miasma that infects the living. And they decay – more slowly than the buried dead, but they decay. Even if they are left alone, they will lose all sense and reason until their body is utterly destroyed, and in the process many of the remaining living will join the dead.'

Gennai frowned at her words. He had not known – and it was a weighty knowledge to bear. 'How long?'

'Who knows,' the Gravekeeper replied. 'It has been five years and Gravekeepers, for the most part, do their job well.'

'Ortus,' Gennai guessed. 'Has something happened there?' But the Chosen were in Japan. They weren't his business – or so he'd thought and now if he'd known more about this phenomenon, he could help the people of Odaiba more, help the Chosen more – the Digital World owes its continued existence to those eight children, and half of them had lost their families because of it.

The Gravekeeper smiled bitterly. 'Ortus is an empty place once more, but the dead will continue to collect there, searching for a way to continue on.'

'A way to stop the degeneration…' If only the rest of the Order still lived. If only there were more of them that could monitor, and explore, they'd be able to cover so much more ground. They would have to cut corners, to risk sacrificing so much, to actually sacrifice so much…

Before the necessity to seek Chosen, he'd barely considered this world past its intricate connection to the Digital World. But that didn't mean he disvalued life, or that he wished to sacrifice even a part of another world for his own. And yet that was what had happened.

'The dead will still be dead,' the Gravekeeper said, 'whether they realise it or not, whether they stop the decay of their bodies and minds or not, whether someone wishes them dead or alive or not. It is an illusion to pretend otherwise.'

'But they are children.' And his heart was heavy at the thought. Three thousand people, most of them with family, all of them with friends. Four of the Chosen were now orphaned, and one was unfortunate enough to lose her entire family. Only three had come away with their families intact, and in a few years when all the dead were buried, they'd learn the truth of Vamdemon's siege, and the lives he had taken. 'They need hope. Light. Love.' And those other traits: the traits that made them Chosen, the traits that had called out so strongly that night four years ago.

'There is no-one who can wish for time to freeze forever,' the Gravekeeper said in reply. She sounded almost sad as she spoke. 'We are born as adults. But the innocence of children has a way of touching everything.'

She began to dig. The shovel easily scooped up soft soil at the bank of the bay. Gennai watched her silently for a while, and then he asked: 'That is a grave?'

'Yes.'

The dirt piled up. It was slow. He wondered how many she could dig a day. And where she would dig once the banks were full, or crowded. Or if she was chased away by workers rebuilding Rainbow Bridge. The Digital World had taken an age to change, but the human world had changed rapidly.

But the people of Odaiba would be able to live in ignorance for a little longer, and the Chosen would have their families, still walking, still talking, still loving and supporting and just being there, for a little while longer as well.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** : Sort of a bridging chapter, covering Our War Game and Wonderswan (specifically Brave Tamer which takes place a bit after Tag Tamers and Tag Tamers takes place during and after Our War Game). From next chapter we're plunging into ZeroTwo, and that's where we'll be for the majority of this fic.

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 **After the Undead, the Reaper Calls  
** _Chapter 2_

A year after the Odaiba Fog, a virus from the digital world emerged into the human one. The Gravekeeper had filled two hundred and twenty-three graves – one for each day that had passed since she'd come the city of the ignorant dead. And she had dug more of them. She spent the rest of her time moving from place to place. The people who'd been in Odaiba then had since spread far and wide. She followed one signal, and then the next. To her, it didn't matter which walking corpse she buried, but it mattered to others and so she picked the ones who seemed to drift alone.

Or, perhaps, she felt the fear her brethren cultivated, when faced with an army of the dead, fighting for their livelihood.

In her circumstance, it didn't matter. She was fulfilling her role and accepting the plea that had been made just over seven months ago at the Rainbow Bridge by that being from another world. She didn't think about the reasons again until the virus emerged.

It wasn't a killing virus. That wasn't what had turned her attention to it. It was the two strong pulses of life she'd felt – pulses stronger than the thousands of people she passed without a care. Death emitted a signal to her. Life did not – and yet these two did. Strong, melting together: she'd thought them one initially, one as she'd turned away from the dead's calling and followed two children and a man to the nearest town, one still as they entered a barber's shop and sat in front of a computer. But when one of the children vanished, she felt the pulse weaken. And then she knew there were two pulses: the child in front of the computer and the child that had vanished through it.

And she saw, on the screen, that second child. And odd creatures that were not human, not even the decayed and mutating dead.

And she remembered the words of the being at Rainbow Bridge. He'd spoken of Digimon. And the Digital World. Was that it? she wondered. And despite herself she stood at the other's shoulder, staring into the screen. Nobody had noticed, yet. The timer was counting down, approaching zero. Why was she watching them so attentively? Gravekeepers were made without emotion, and that included curiosity. And yet what she felt, what drove her to stand there and watch, could be called nothing else. Curiosity. She was curious. About the Digital World. About the strong pulses of life. About the computer, and the boy who'd vanished in it. She wondered if he'd be inhabiting the grave she'd dug instead of the old woman?

 _No_. She shook her head at that. Unless the body was badly damaged, the old woman was of greater concern.

But maybe that grave would be empty, would wait. The old woman was family to these two boys, and they were, as the being at Rainbow Bridge had called them, Chosen.

The being was Gennai.

She hadn't thought about that since they'd parted ways. The last words had been: 'you'll know who the Chosen are.'

Those pulses of light, perhaps. This child in front of her, and the child that had vanished into the computer.

 _Are they still Chosen when they have died?_ she wondered. Another question. Another curiosity. And the ignorant masses of Tokyo would have no answer for her.

Nor was the answer relevant, in the end, because when the other boy emerged from the computer again, he was very much alive.

And he stared at her. 'Who are you?' he asked, abruptly.

The other twisted in his seat with a cry of surprise.

'I am a Gravekeeper,' she replied, regarding them. They didn't react to the title. They didn't know. And she explained no further. At this point, there was no need to do so. Her work was easier when there was no-one actively trying to bar her way.

And safer too, but Gravekeepers had no sense of self-preservation either.

'The graveyard is five miles away,' the one who'd emerged from the computer said, after a brief pause. 'That direction.

She nodded and went on her way.

 **.**

They beat her back, since she had used her legs to travel and they the motorcycle. She waited a few days until the old woman was alone again. She had to, sometimes. She made up for it on other days, when she was in more crowded places and there were several associated walking dead. And during the wait. She dug more graves anyway. The old woman lived alone but there were other houses spaced out in the countryside. She could sense no dead from them, but one day that would change. The Gravekeeper who happened upon them would then use the graves already prepared and bury them.

Gravekeepers could also sense the graves dug by other Gravekeepers. Even when they were covered to escape the notice of the living or the suspicious dead.

Three days later, the two boys left the house again and the old woman wondered outside. The Gravekeeper met her. And, quite bluntly, told her she was dead.

Perhaps it was the age she'd been when she died, or the way her mind had deteriorated, but she accepted it more easily than some others. Most grew violent when the realised she strove to end their time as a living dead. But this woman went peacefully, like a person who'd been waiting for an angel to come.

In fact, she called her an angel as the first shovel of mud covered her.

 _Angel…_ that was nicer than most names she'd been called since her creation.

 **.**

Yamato and Takeru had arrived back home and had been there for two days before the call came, the call that said the grandmother they'd just been visiting had disappeared. In Odaiba, Yamato couldn't say much at all. He could only say what he'd seen: she'd been reasonably well, watching baseball with them, making cookies with too much sugar in them, accidentally hanging up on Taichi… but those things came with age. He wouldn't consider her delirious because of things like that.

But that was the only possibility the police could think of. An old lady, living alone, had grown delirious after her visiting grandchildren had left for home and tried to follow. And she'd gotten herself lost in the countryside. The townspeople had searched as best they could, but they'd found nothing unusual at all. A week later, they assumed her dead and held a small service. Yamato and Takeru hopped back on the train to meet them, and this time their parents came too. Both of them, even though this grandmother had been from their father's side. Natsuko had known her ex-mother in law, after all.

So they went to the service, and visited the local cemetery as well. While there was no marker for the dear old lady, her husband's marker was there and it was in front of that gravestone they lay flowers and ohagi Yamato and Natsuko together made.

 **.**

They didn't connect the disappearance to the other disappearances that had occurred around Tokyo over the last seven months. They were so disperse, so unconnected, that the police were yet to consider it the work of a serial killer or kidnapper, or some large organisation with something to hide. They took each disappearance as they came. A good number of them were old people who could very well have succumbed to delirium. Others were ones who had shown signs of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's (many abnormally young) and were similarly piled. A few had left suicide notes. Then were was the occasional result of domestic violence: the violent partner or parent would stalk off to clear their heads and never return. 'Gone to their mistress/mister,' the partner left behind would mumble. 'Decided I was too much trouble,' would be the child's woe.

Which left only a small number of disappearances that could be considered suspicious. And they hadn't amounted to enough yet to drag in the eye of the public.

The Gravekeeper didn't think that would last very much longer. Humans, alive or dead, had a very strong instinct to continue existing. The exceptions were some of the older ones and those who actively tried to end their own lives – but the majority of the human race, in her experience, strove to keep on existing. They would be the ones who refused to accept they were dead, or the ones who sort to make use of it. It was because of that instinct, that overwhelmingly strong desire, that places like Ortus existed. In the west there were whispers that it was because of this overwhelming desire that God had abandoned them to begin with.

But then the Gravekeepers would be useless. Redundant. But they continued to be created, to be sent out to the world. For every Gravekeeper that was destroyed, another would be created in the birth place. It was a place all Gravekeepers could sense – just like they sensed the dead, and the graves they dug.

Just like she had sensed those two pulsing lights. She had lost them to the train and continued in the same direction on foot. When she found another isolated dead she turned towards it instead. Gravekeepers did not know curiosity after all. There was no need for her to pursue that while shirking her duties.

And so she put the incident out of her mind and continued to dig, and fight the dead, and bury them so their souls may depart this world in peace.

 **.**

A month later, she was in Tamachi and felt another pulse flickering about. Though there were no dead in the apartment she followed it to, and she had to accept the reason she'd followed it to begin with was a curiosity she shouldn't feel.

She turned away from it, and a few weeks later she felt it suddenly dim, but not die. And she remembered when she'd felt that last. Two signal: one had gone and one remained. The same thing had happened here, but this time the signal did not return. She waited outside the apartment for a bit, and then she left.

A few days later, there was a disappearance in the newspaper that wasn't her doing at all. She wondered if it was the pulse of life she'd felt disappear.

But it was neither her job nor her concern. If this was the incident that spurred the human authorities into action, so be it.

It wasn't. It took almost three years before they became suspicious of an outside perpetrator. Before that, they'd been confounded: how there were so many people whose brain functions were so quickly deteriorating, and violence rates suddenly climbing so high… Much time and money had gone into researching those things, and money was still fed into those endeavours. They found nothing, though. Because they were human. They did not have the ability to sense the dead amongst the living, and they missed the clues that would suggest that. And they had no dead bodies to study. The potentials they would keep an eye on would unexpectedly disappear. The Gravekeeper was slowed by their diligence, but not stopped.

By then she'd buried a thousand, and not all of them from Odaiba Fog incident that had claimed over three thousand lives.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Not a shred of anything Sunday Without God in this chapter. I meant to have a scene with the Gravekeeper but it fit better at the beginning of the next chapter so I left it off. Also, this is pretty much a rewrite of the first episode with (hopefully) only the dialogue somewhat changed – paraphrased mostly. I won't be rewriting every chapter, just the ones important developmentally to the plot and the additional scenes that take place with the digimon characters.

That being said, episode 2-3 will still be paraphrased. Haven't decided after that – the episodes are important character-wise but I don't want to get entirely wrapped up in the digimon plot when there's the Sunday Without God part to consider as well… We'll see! If nothing else, that's a minimum of two chapters away from now.

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 **After the Undead, the Reaper Calls  
** _Chapter 3_

It was the first day of school, but that wasn't why Daisuke was up early. He was up because he'd made arrangements with friends to play soccer in the field before school started, and soccer was one of the rare thins that coaxed him up as early as the sun. Not that he was a particularly late sleeper in normal circumstances; he was up by ten on weekends, and more or less by half past eight on a school day. The problem was, he needed a bit more time to make it to the elementary school before the bell rang.

But this was soccer and plans with friends, and they'd planned to meet up by quarter-to eight…so of course he made it there by eight on the dot. Because he needed a healthy breakfast to be able to play soccer and get through a day of school, and brush his teeth and hair and all the usual things. He'd set his alarm almost an hour earlier too, using Jun's trick of setting a little extra early after not needing an alarm for most of the holidays, "so I don't need to drag that spiky head of yours out of bed myself at eight-thirty."

Of course, she hadn't bothered waking him when he pressed snooze the first time. Soccer simply didn't rank as high on Jun's book as it did in Daisuke's.

But at least he squeezed in some laughs and half an hour of soccer and made it to his new homeroom on time for the first day to leave a good impression on the teacher. So he'd come out of that quite well. Lucky, even. He'd been mistaken for his sempai by some kid he didn't recognise while kicking the ball around, and his sempai's little sister was in his class as well.

He really liked the Yagami siblings, both of them. And he knew them both fairly well, ever since he'd made the regional under 15's soccer team and met Taichi-sempai there. And being in the same class as Hikari-chan again meant he could get to know her even more. It was a lucky break.

Except Hikari-chan wasn't paying much attention to him, in favour of the new boy.

It took Daisuke a moment to realise that boy looked familiar because it was the same one who'd mistaken him for Taichi-sempai earlier that day. Which meant he knew the Yagamis as well. And from the snippets he caught from them, better than him.

They were talking about the digital world, and digimon. Daisuke knew the words, but nothing else about them. Taichi-sempai had mentioned them once and possibly by accident. He'd fumbled over the explanation and then changed the topic, and all Daisuke had managed to learn was that the digital world was some place where digimon lived. What digimon were and where the digital world was was still a mystery, but Taichi-sempai had had that odd guilty look on his face – the sort of look that came with being caught with a hand in the cookie jar, and Daisuke decided his own curiosity wasn't worth getting his sempai in trouble. So he didn't ask again.

But Hikari-chan and the new boy were discussing things rather freely. Unfortunately, none of it made sense without context and all Daisuke really understood before he realised he was eavesdropping on the pair and not paying attention in class was that this Takeru had been living across Tokyo Bay and had only very recently moved closer. And that his mother hadn't even checked out the place yet, however that worked.

He tried to pay attention to his classes after that, but his curiosity was revived and he couldn't help but sneak looks at the pair from time to time, now quiet and diligently taking notes.

 **.**

He lost them at lunch and didn't bother going on a wild goose chase, thinking Hikari-chan had probably taken the new kid on the school tour. He caught them after school at the lockers instead, though they barely exchanged a few sentences with each other before they were interrupted. And all he gained from the encounter was the knowledge that the new kid _did_ know HIkari-chan better than him. It showed in Hikari-chan's frown at his somewhat disrespectful address.

But then Miyako, who he knew because her sister Momoe-san was a friend of his sister's, came with an email from Taichi-sempai and they were all running to the computer room and collecting two more people along the way. And one of them was in a high school uniform but was also talking about Taichi-sempai and both Hikari-chan and Takeru.

Takeru called the guy in the high school uniform Koushiro-san. And Koushiro-san, once they were in the computer room, sent a reply back.

The rest of them read the email over his shoulder…and the original he was replying to.

'What's the digital world?' Miyako wondered aloud.

'Taichi-sempai mentioned it once.' Maybe this was his chance to solve that little mystery. 'Something about a place with digimon…'

Takeru's expression was surprised as he looked back. 'You know Taichi-san? And you know about the digital world?'

 _Whoops_ , Daisuke thought. He probably should have left his sempai's name out of that sentence. Hopefully that didn't count as getting his sempai into trouble for having said something he shouldn't have, since he was now in this "digital world" and could use a bit of knowledge about the place.

But Takeru was just furrowing his brow and Hikari-chan was nodding and adding: 'Daisuke-kun plays on the same soccer team as onii-chan.'

And then they were through a computer and actually in the digital world.

…or Hikari-chan, Takeru and he himself were. That Koushiro guy was supposed to follow and Miyako had left with the other kid to make a phone call. Or something like that. Things had happened kind of fast. They were in the digital world and suddenly he was learning more about the place than he'd intended. Like it looked like a pretty nice place until those slimy things popped out of the vending machine…and Hikari-chan called them cute!

Then again, that was one of the things he liked about Hikari-chan, how she could see something good in everything. And she seemed to know the slimy blobs, so that was two points in their favour.

'You changed tunes fast.' Takeru was giving him a sceptical look.

 _Well, let him_. Takeru wasn't inside Daisuke's head to understand his thought processes.

The procession passed, and then Hikari-chan was calling and dashing up a hill to meet a tall figure in the sun. Daisuke squinted. Yep, that was Taichi-sempai, followed by a few more monsters, all bigger than the green blob…although the orange flying one wasn't a _great_ deal bigger.

Said orange flying one landed on Takeru's hat. The cat leapt into Hikari-chan's hands and the other flyer, red and insect like, looked around. 'Where's Koushiro-han?' he asked.

They explained what had happened after the email, and Taichi-sempai told them why he'd called as well. It mostly went over Daisuke's head. What was digivolving? And a Digimon Kaiser? How did anyone think they could control an entire world in this day and age? And what were those things called digivices for anyway? His was a heavy, unfamiliar weight in his pocket and he was following the others, lost, jumping at what shadows they said to be scared of and other unfamiliar ones.

Like the dinosaur guarding what the others called a digi-tama but looked more like a football with a spike through it. And when they tried to lift it, it wouldn't budge – until he tried. Then it came away easily under his hands and he wondered what the problem had been –

And then there was a pillar of light and a blue figure uncurling and he had something else to think about.

'Today's your lucky day!'

He almost laughed. He'd been thinking that too, in the morning. And, despite all the craziness, it might be his lucky day after all.

Because he still didn't really get digimon or the digital world or all those other things with "digi" in their names, but he got that this digimon called V-mon also called himself his partner.

But that was all the time they got for introductions because they were suddenly being chased by a dinosaur and V-mon was yelling at him to open the digi-tama.

'How?' Daisuke cried. _Grab the spike and yank it?_ That seemed like a good way to _break_ the egg…

'Courage,' was the reply. Courage… That was a tough one. Sure, it was easy to _say_ he had courage, but when had he actually needed it? He was reasonably well liked at school. Rarely had to worry about bullies and the likes. And squabbling with his sister could hardly be called courageous. He'd never heard the Yagami siblings argue, but Miyako and her siblings did all the time. It was just a sibling thing and, probably, it was Hikari-chan who was the courageous one to never argue with her brother…or Daisuke had simply never seen them argue before and they engaged in the ritual plenty a time.

But he underestimated himself. He found his feet and tongue moving when Hikari-chan screamed, sprawled where she'd tripped with the Monochromon charging at her.

The egg burst with light. V-mon glowed and changed shape: became adult sized, with armour and claws.

 _So that's digivolution?_

But hadn't Tailmon said they couldn't digivolve because of some "dark digivice"? Not that it mattered right then, he supposed. Fladramon, as V-mon had declared himself after the change, took care of the Monochromon easily. Or the ring like thing controlling him, because once that was gone, Hikari-chan hobbled over and pet him and the Monochromon didn't bare his teeth at all.

V-mon shrunk. Daisuke sighed tiredly and felt his forehead: the goggles were cracked, but instead he had a digivice, a digimon and a digi-tama. A three for one deal, except the digital world had wound up being a lot more than he bargained more. He kind of got Koushiro-san's words. It wasn't a game when they almost got trampled. It wasn't a game when something broke –

Or maybe that was the wrong word to use. He'd broken a lot of stuff: vases, windows and the likes, while playing soccer. But that wasn't the same. Not at all.

And V-mon saying "let's do it again sometime"…

But Taichi-sempai and Hikari-chan and even Takeru were nodding and talking about the Kaiser and how late it had gotten and about going and coming and the gate, and he couldn't really say anything else but "Great." And it wasn't like he was adverse to the idea. He felt kind of proud of himself, especially when Taichi-sempai gave him his own goggles as a memento. He was probably just overwhelmed, he decided. Just needed a bit to get accustomed to the idea, to come to terms with it. Because aside from the almost getting fried and the Hikari-chan tripping and unable to get out of Monochromon's warpath bits, the digital world had been pretty cool. Animals weren't so colourful, and they didn't talk either. That's why he didn't like pets but V-mon was bright blue and could talk.

It was a shame that, when they went through the gate and wound up back in the computer lab, V-mon hadn't come with.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** A mix of both worlds this time, though the second part is again from Daisuke's POV. Next chapter we'll switch to Takeru and will cover the rest of chapter 2. There probably won't be another update for a while, since by next chapter I'll have passed the 10k hurdle for the competition this is entered for, and it's a good time to switch focuses to something a little easier to write. This crossover is hard work. :D And I still need to rewatch Sunday Without God too.

Enjoy!

* * *

 **After the Undead, the Reaper Calls  
** _Chapter 4_

Coming back to the bay had been a tentative decision for her. The majority of the dead from three years ago were still there, and it was there her actions in burying them would be more noticeable. But, to her knowledge, she'd cleaned up the others, those that had spread far and wide, and new deaths as an aside. But now she had come to the crux of her task, and there was a request from a man – or not man – that she had met in this bay three years ago to honour as well.

But there were still over a thousand dead to bury. Closer to two thousand, she thought. Maybe a bit above if one included other causes for mass death. A car crash that had killed two bus-loads of kids and their teachers but no-one had noticed, since they'd all sat up and walked on. Many who died of sickness but went on, day by day, not realising. The ignorant Japan still declared death: heartbeats that ceased in moments of unconsciousness, but the oddity of finding no heartbeat on one awake was generally put down to poor skill. She knew little of the living's world, but sometimes she wondered if there existed a way in their technologically advanced society to check every person: check their eyes, or the tint of death in their sclera. But they'd seen no cause. Not yet. As advanced as the east was, it was segregated from the west wherein the truth began to spread.

But their ignorant bliss wouldn't last forever. Japan was kept cleansed for a time through their cremations but unprecedented and misunderstood disasters caused the hidden death toll to climb. And when the dead went on living, their bodies and minds decayed. One day they would lose all reason and seek only their preservation if they weren't buried in time, and then the happy days of ignorance would end.

The job of a Gravekeeper was to prevent that. At least in a part of the world where ignorance still lived.

 **.**

The Gravekeeper was digging her first grave near the bay when she felt it: light souls, alive souls, blossoming in to the world. They couldn't be born. There no births any more. And yet she was sure they hadn't been there just seconds before.

Leaving the half dug grave, she wandered after the lights. They split far before she reached them, and only one came her way. She followed it: it was the closest after all. _He_ : it was a boy around ten, or eleven or maybe twelve, with goggles on his head.

She watched him enter a building cluttered but not entirely filled with dead.

She would need to stay away from that apartment building, for the time being at least.

 **.**

Daisuke babbled off some excuse to his parents while kicking off his shoes. They assumed he was playing soccer anyway, so they didn't complain. He was well within his curfew after all. Not even late for dinner…not that he ever was late for dinner, because dinner at the Motomiya apartment could fill his appetite when cafeteria food could not.

He hadn't been playing soccer, but he shed his clothes and hopped into the tub anyway. The digital world had been an adventure, after all, and it was always nice to feel the muscles relax in the warm water. And it was a good time to think as well, until the water became cool and his sister knocked on the door until he came out – and why she bothered, he'd never know. But no amount of thinking would consolidate the digital world. It was strange, like a world of a movie or a video game, and yet it was real and he'd made a friend in that world.

V-mon. He wondered what V-mon was doing now. Whether they'd meet again. They probably would, if there was that Digimon Kaiser going around ruining the show. They'd have to fight and beat him and create a happy ever after ending for everyone, like the hero always did in the video games.

Except it wasn't a video game, and people got hurt. Hikari-chan had hurt her ankle, and though she'd been able to walk with a slight limp afterwards so it wasn't sprained or even strained (and soccer club was the only reason he knew the difference between the two), but it was plainly more than just a game. If that fiery attack had hit Hikari-chan, he was pretty sure she would have been badly hurt, or worse. And there'd be no magic medicine to make things better or revive her should she die otherwise her face wouldn't have been so terrified. Because she'd been to that world before. She must know that much at least. And that made him a little afraid as well, because there would be no second chances if they messed up.

But at least he knew that now. There were no second chances in this world either and he wasn't afraid of his own shadow. It was just a surprise; even though he'd heard of the digital world, he'd never really expected it.

He'd just have to be careful, he figured. And brave. In this world, the adults did the fighting. In that world, it'd be them and their digimon partners. On the down side, that meant they were the ones in danger, and the ones who had to do the hard work as well instead of just reaping the benefits of his father's salary and mother's housekeeping and just going to school every weekday…

On the plus side, they got to actually _mean_ something. They got to fight, and be heroes.

And his dreams that night were filled with V-mon and knights and something sparkling.

 **.**

They collected in the computer lab that afternoon. Taichi-sempai and Hikari-chan and Takeru were there, and Koushiro-san. Then there was Miyako and a little guy called Hida Iori, and an older girl in the same uniform as Taichi-sempai whose name was Takenouchi Sora-san. Koushirou explained a few things, and Daisuke added his own tidbits. After all, he was the only one of the new kids to go to the digital world. That had to count for something. Even if Miyako was rolling her eyes at him.

He was sure she'd be freaked when she saw the digital world was far more real than some video game.

He didn't get the chance to witness it though. Even before going through the gate, it was a bustle of activity. They got interrupted by a teacher the older kids seemed to know, and Taichi-sempai led him out before he spotted the gate on the computer. Which left the rest of them to go through, and they did to find V-mon waiting, along with others.

There was Patamon again, who made a beeline for Takeru, and Tailmon who likewise bounded to Hikari-chan. Then there were two digimon Daisuke hadn't met yesterday: Piyomon, Sora-san's partner, and Tentomon who was Koushiro's.

And the new clothes, which had somehow entirely slipped his mind. Though he noticed that Sora-san and Koushiro-san were still in their uniforms, and Takeru and Hikari-chan were in the clothes they wore to school. It was only Miyako's and Iori's clothes that had changed, along with his own.

 _Go figure,_ he thought to himself. The world had some odd rules. Maybe it was a welcome for the new kids only? There was even some background noise. A roar.

Sora-san suddenly looked up and screamed. Daisuke looked up as well. _That explains the roar…_ It was a flying mantis, and swooping at them. At Sora-san and Piyomon who were either his targets or the easiest to get to. But Takeru yelled and pushed them down, and the digimon were attacking.

It was no good. The attacks did little at all and Tailmon scowled at her paws when she bounced off. 'Without my tail ring, I'm as weak as a Child.'

V-mon jumped in front. 'Daisuke! The digitama!'

 _The digitama? Oh, right_. The digitama had made V-mon stronger last time. And since the attacks at this level were no good, they needed to step it up. Daisuke found the D-terminal in his pocket, and his digivice in the other. But he lost his footing before he could take them out, and could barely grab a jutting stone in the hole that had suddenly opened up to swallow him.

'Daisuke!' the others cried, V-mon's closest and somehow the most real in his sudden fright. And V-mon was there: visible. Reaching a hand down, and Daisuke could tell he was just a little too far away for comfort, with two glowing eyes in the darkness behind him. But it was either reach up or fall and so he reached up. He'd rather take his chances, when it came to things.

But it didn't wind up mattering in the end, because a shadow appeared behind V-mon and the warning was barely passed Daisuke's lips when V-mon was falling past.

Daisuke grabbed the tail, but lost his hold on the jutted rock as a result. The two slipped, and for a moment the fresh slope dug at Daisuke's hands and face as he slid. Then there was a sort of heavy pressure and he couldn't breathe, though he fought for breath…and lost.

 **.**

He woke up stapled to the side of a cliff with someone's laughing voice to greet him. He didn't grasp things at first. Like many who came out of unconsciousness, confusion was the first thing he felt. But things began to pierce themselves together. The tight feeling in his chest that got better the more he breathed. The view he was taking in. The hard feeling around his wrists, and on his back. The lack of support beneath his feet and the lack of mobility in all but the tiny joints of his fingers and toes. And the voice that was coming from somewhere above and in front.

A kid, maybe a little taller than him but definitely dressed far more extravagantly than the clothes change the digital world had offered to him. And he had a whip in one hand. No good guy would have a whip. 'The Digimon Kaiser?' he guessed. He didn't look so tough. It must have been the height. Nonetheless, Daisuke realised he was at the other's mercy: weaponless, stuck to a cliff – and where was V-mon?'

The Digimon Kaiser confirmed his identity with some amusement, and V-mon's location: the cliff face opposite Daisuke. He was still unconscious, but Daisuke called his name and he stirred. 'Daisuke!'

'V-mon!' Daisuke returned, relieved. They'd barely known each other, but Daisuke had been worried. There was relief on V-mon's face as well. Somehow they'd gotten that close without him being aware of it.

They could get even closer without being stuck to a cliff, Daisuke thought. And, better, he wouldn't feel so vulnerable if he could move. Or if V-mon could move. Or both.

'V-mon!' he called across the cliff. 'Armour digivolve!'

But V-mon couldn't armour digivolve, because the Digimon Kaiser had both digivice and D-terminal in his hand and was waving it at them. Was taunting them. Like a child. Like a kid their age who'd stolen the ball and was rolling it in the grass, taunting the opposition, waiting for them to try and swipe the ball before bursting past and to the less defended goal…

Except this wasn't soccer, and Daisuke was starting to feel vulnerable all over again. Especially when the Digimon Kaiser cracked his whip and a choker-like ring appeared in thin air, and the Kaiser guided it ever so slowly to V-mon. They both yelled. Daisuke's heart was thudding in his chest and V-mon's arms and legs and eyes were bulging. And the ring inched closer, as well as the threats that came attached with it.

Tailmon mentioned them yesterday. The rings that turned good digimon into his slaves. And the Kaiser said the same. And then what? Would V-mon armour digivolve into Fladramon? Would Daisuke be fried by him, in those shackles on that cliff? Or would he be set free because he was a bee without his only stinger and sent home to get over it all? But he wouldn't be able to, would he? Hikari-chan and Taichi-sempai and the others would still come to the digital world, would still try to stop him. And that would be giving up, wouldn't it?

Avenging? That would be crazy, without any power to back him up. But he didn't have any power now either. Nor did V-mon. But V-mon's yell had diffused into blubber and Daisuke's had evolved from yelling just V-mon's name to 'Leave him alone!' Terror had loosened his tongue instead of frozen it. Perhaps it was because it was terror for something or someone else, as opposed to himself. He wasn't in any immediate terror. Unless V-mon attacked him after the ring but that was thinking ahead and Daisuke had never been good at planning ahead anyway so it was easier to avoid thinking about that again.

It was also easier to think of a few choice words to call the Kaiser, even if he did wind up signing his death warrant with a floral script in the process. Even though the ring inching closer was a distraction, eating at fear, eating at reason, eating at the scene that surrounded them so he could only see V-mon, the ring…and the Kaiser with his cracked whip looking down at them both.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** And this chapter takes things over 10k, so that'll be it for updates for a while – at least until my list has shrunk a bit and I rewatch Sunday Without God or decide to tackle the diversity hurdles a bit more actively… we'll see. The advantage of having this crossed over with an obscured fandom is I'm likely to disappoint less people with lack of updates… You can keep an eye on what I'm working on from the link on my profile page. :D

Bye for now and enjoy!

* * *

 **After the Undead, the Reaper Calls  
** _Chapter 5_

Takeru remembered when Taichi-san had disappeared into the time warp, and how they'd all drifted away from each other after that until even his brother and Patamon were gone. He remembered when Nanomon had stolen Sora-san from right under their noses.

And now he had the ground opening up and swallowing Daisuke to add to the list.

And he was technically the experienced one. Koushirio-san too, but Sora-san had been the first to leave after Taichi-san, and she'd been the one to be kidnapped by Nanomon, and Hikari hadn't been there for either incident. At least after that, with the Dark Masters, they hadn't been alone. Except Yamato, but again he'd left of his own free will. Not like this. Not leaving that feeling of inadequacy and helplessness behind – and moreso when they had to admit their Child stage digimon were simply not powerful enough to handle Adult opponents when their own Adult states were unavailable to them.

At least when Daisuke was there, they'd had insurance. A backup plan. That was gone now and all they could do was run. Just all they could have done with Etemon was flee, because none of their digimon could reach the Perfect level like him.

Just like, right now, none of their digimon could reach the Adult stage.

So they ran. And then they quietly moved through the forest, hyper-alert and very wary of how vulnerable they were. Sora-san and Koushiro-san looked as annoyed with themselves as Takeru felt, and Tailmon as well. Hikari-chan was more in between. She hadn't been there when they'd fallen apart, been scattered. She hadn't been there to witness Devimon's destruction and Patamon playing the role of the sacrificial lamb. Those were the two worst, Takeru thought. Though there were other examples, like when his brother had split up from the group, and Mimi-san and Jyou-san…

There was suddenly a beeping noise in his ears, and Iori and Miyako were staring at the screens of their digivices. Takeru stared at his as well, though he'd never heard his device make that sound. It was the culprit though; the red flashing dot in time with the beeps was enough proof of its guilt. So they followed them, because the digivices had never led them to anything but each other and, in the back of his mind, he wondered if it was Daisuke's digivice they detected. In a building of some sort. A temple, Piyomon and Tentomon said.

Except when they climbed the stairs and reached the top – and relieved a bit of tension by complaining about the height because they really were a lot of them – there was no Daisuke waiting for them. Instead, there were two digitamas like the one of courage Taichi-san had showed them the day before. The egg V-mon had been under.

One had the crest of knowledge; the other the crest of love. Perhaps it called to Koushiro-san and Sora-san, or perhaps they thought the same as Taichi-san had the day before because they went over to their respective digitamas and tried to lift them. When they didn't budge, they exchanged looks again and then turned to the others: Iori-kun and Miyako-san.

They lifted the digitamas without a problem, and found their partners nestled under them.

 **.**

Takeru remembered when he first met his partner. He'd been a Tokomon then, and Takeru had no idea how dangerous the Digital World could be, or how far away from home. Iori-kun and Miyako-san had a bit more of a glimpse of that with Daisuke's capture, and so their first meeting with their partner was very different. But Kouishiro-san and Sora-san were there, like mentors just like Taichi-san had been for all of them. And their expressions relaxed from terrified to ready to fight. Hikari-chan had relaxed as well, and the others. Two digimon able to armour digivolve meant they were safer now than before, and nothing from the earlier fight suggested two armour digimon wouldn't be able to handle the slaves of the Kaiser.

So they made a battle plan. Koushiro, as always, was the brains behind it and they sent Tentomon and Piyomon and Patamon to serve as scouts once they traced Daisuke's signal down. It was in the other direction, and for a moment Takeru felt ashamed they'd fled so far – but they'd been defenceless. It wouldn't have helped Daisuke or V-mon if they'd been hurt or captured in folly.

And they'd found two more friends, two more digimon with the ability to digivolve and fight with them against the injustice that had called them back to the digital world. Digimon that quickly showed themselves off: Holsmon with a griffin-like body and sharp wings, and Digmon with drill-like claws and a drill-like nose to boot.

Both of those proved quite handy when it turned out that Daisuke and V-mon were shackled to a cliff.

'There was a human there as well.' Patamon settled himself comfortably on top of Takeru's head. 'He had a whip. He must be the Digimon Kaiser.'

Takeru shuddered in a sort of angry horror at the thought of the Kaiser using that whip on someone or something. Tailmon's eyes were cold at that as well, and she had all the reason in the world to react like that. 'I'll handle the Kaiser,' she said.'

'We only need to get Daisuke's digivice and D-terminal away from him,' Koushiro cautioned. 'And there's that Wormmon to take care of as well. Don't overdo it.' There was the implicit reminder in that warning: _you don't have your holy ring anymore, remember._

'I won't,' Tailmon replied, and she looked at Hikari-chan when she said that, so it must have been the truth.

'What about me?' asked Patamon.

Koushiro gave him an apologetic look. 'You've done your bit,' he said. 'You and Tentomon and Piyomon.' The rest of the plan was to have Holsmon do damage control in the air, while Digmon tunnelled through the cliff to free the pair. They figured V-mon would be in more danger if only based on the dark rings and the fact that their enemy was human which meant, hopefully, that he'd have some empathy for others of the same species. But after seeing digimon like Devimon and Etemon Vamdemon and the Dark Masters who destroyed indiscriminately, could they really depend on that flimsy thought? It was the difference of a few minutes, but those minutes could matter.

'Don't worry,' growled Holsmon. 'Miyako and I will keep Daisuke safe until then.'

And Koushiro knew what he was doing. He always knew what he was doing, and the only thing about the whole plan was that Takeru and Hikari and Sora had absolutely no role in it at all.

Takeru realised that if he hadn't come that day, nothing will have changed. Because two digimon could scout as well as three, and Hikari was necessary if only so Tailmon was there as well. He was still in the background, still watching. He'd thought that, after Pinnochimon and Piemon, all that standing in the shadows and watching everyone else fight was over and done with. But then there'd been the battle with Diabolomon. It had been all his brother and Taichi-san, and Takeru had only sat there and minded the computer.

And he'd thought, many times since then, that if he hadn't gone with his brother and just stayed at their grandmother's place, maybe she wouldn't have wandered off again and vanished. Because they never did find her, and they didn't see her again either after rushing off to save the world.

But now it was time to think about Daisuke, even if he and Patamon could only watch. They stayed above the cliffs, with Hikari, watching Tailmon. Because Wormmon at least was a rookie, and the Kaiser a human even if he was a human with a whip. Tailmon was stronger than all of them even without her ring, but at least there they could be backups. They couldn't help Holsmon at all with the three champion digimon that had attacked before.

The plan goes off largely without a hitch. Tailmon only needs one punch to knock Tailmon down but the whip sends her flying with a flick. She'll be insulted – Takeru and Hikari are both sure – but Miyako catches her to spare more wounds than her pride's. Holsmon's timely arrival means the Kaiser fails to put a ring around V-mon's neck, and Digmon plucks the Child from his shackles before it becomes an issue again.

And then Miyako, who had also caught the digivice and D-terminal, return them to a newly freed Daisuke and it's three on three: Fladramon, Digmon and Holsmon against the ringed Adult digimon, and they didn't stand a chance.

Patamon shifted restlessly on Takeru's hat, and Takeru felt for him. He was restless too. Restless in his powerlessness. 'Maybe there are digitamas for us as well,' Hikari-chan said. 'Or at least something.'

'We wouldn't be here otherwise,' Takeru finished the thought. And Hikari-chan had a point there. They wouldn't be able to go to and from the Digital World if they didn't have a role there. Hikari-can hadn't been able to enter until Vamdemon had been dealt with – unless that was entirely a coincidence. But Koushiro-san thought there was another reason, just like there was a reason other Chosen, like Wallace, had never been to the Digital World. It was a part of some larger puzzle they couldn't see at the moment, a puzzle they might never fully understand. There might be other things, other tidbits, that fit into that puzzle as well that he's already placed aside.

His grandmother's disappearance is in fact one of those things, even though he won't be aware of that connection for quite some time.


End file.
